But ongoing problems faced by workers in Costa Rica illustrate the need for the international regulation of procurement supply chains.
By UNISON international officer Gemma Freedman and Banana Link’s Holly Woodward-Davey
UNISON has a long tradition of solidarity with workers in the Global South. And that solidarity does not stop with the public sector.
For nearly 10 years, it has worked with banana and pineapple trade unions in Costa Rica. While tropical fruit is a big business, the thousands of rural people who work in the plantations experience terrible working conditions – long hours under the hot sun, often with heavy loads on their backs, for what they refer to as ‘hunger salaries’. They have also faced decades of union busting.
Since 2017, UNISON’s project funding, allied to the expertise of the UK-based NGO Banana Link, has been instrumental in the capacity building of the Costa Rican Union of Agricultural Plantation Workers (SITRAP), helping the union to grow in membership, develop its organising and legal skills, galvanise workers and better represent their rights.
But a recent UNISON/Banana Link fact-finding trip to the country in December, to hear firsthand from workers, found that while much has been achieved, the fundamental problems remain – with much still to fight for.
Systematic violations
Bananas are the leading product in volume and value for many European retailers. Costa Rica is the biggest supplier of pineapples and the second biggest supplier of bananas to the United Kingdom, representing 90% and 20%+ of imports respectively. It is a labour-intensive crop that requires a full workforce all year round, unlike seasonal crops.
In the 2025 Global Rights Index published by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), Costa Rica now appears in the second worst category for the first time: having been in the category of “regular violations”, it was now demoted to “systematic violations”.
The ITUC says: “Working conditions in Costa Rica have continued to deteriorate, as union rights were increasingly restricted by regressive laws and infringed by employers… Forming a union has become virtually impossible, as the authorities retain broad discretion over registration procedures.”
UNISON and Banana Link meeting with SITRAP women members from two Del Monte farms in Cariari district, Limon Province
The December delegation, which included Margaret McKee, the chair of UNISON’s international committee, and union vice president James Anthony, provided some direct evidence of these findings.
The Costa Rican industry is dominated by big fruit multinationals and medium and large national companies. None of the companies we approached were prepared to invite representatives of Britains’ largest union onto their farms to talk to workers or observe the work environment, despite the UK’s significance for exports.
Instead, we spoke to workers at bus stops and playing fields and by the side of the road. They told us that they were routinely working 48 hours a week just to reach minimum wage, and significantly more in high season (according to research by the International Labour Organisation, 20% of workers are working over 72 hours a week). They were concerned about unsustainably low wages and barriers to accessing medical treatment.
Workers also told us that women experience recruitment discrimination due to the costs associated with pregnancy and maternity. Excessive productivity targets combined with sexist attitudes mean that managers on some farms are timing women’s toilet breaks, while on others insufficient facilities force women to relieve themselves in ditches, where they say male colleagues filmed them.
And on top of everything else, women are working longer hours for lower pay than their male colleagues.
Perhaps most troubling was hearing workers’ testimonies on their experiences of the entrenched anti-union culture among companies. This ranged from systematic requirement that unionised workers disaffiliate in order to be eligible for promotion, to the withdrawal of company-issued protective clothing for unionised workers, to the blacklisting of them and their family members – a severe consequence in rural areas where alternative employment options are few and far between.
Murky supply chains
Tracing the journey of a banana from plantation to plate is very difficult, and bananas that are bought by public institutions are no exception. Britain’s public procurement supply chains are fragmented and fundamentally price driven. While many institutions have procurement policies centred on ethical considerations, such as sourcing fresh produce locally through regional wholesalers, the benefits of this approach do not translate to fair conditions for workers producing tropical fresh fruit which cannot, by their very nature, be grown locally.
The lack of a centralised procurement system leads to opaque and complicated public supply chains. The reality is that dozens of small wholesalers and catering suppliers supplying institutions like hospitals, schools and universities across the UK are negotiating contracts with giant fruit multinationals to supply their bananas at knock-down prices. And while public bodies may state that their fruit is grown to certification standards, research indicates that voluntary standards are no guarantee of decent work.
Progress
Developments over the last couple of years give reason to be hopeful that the situation may be changing for Caribbean workers.
In 2023, Oxfam Germany filed a complaint against German retailers under the new German Supply Chain Act, for alleged labour violations of workers in their banana supply chains in Costa Rica and Ecuador. These included excessively low wages, aerial spraying of pesticides, and discrimination against union members.
After receiving the complaint, Aldi engaged with its banana supplier, their Costa Rican producer and the local trade union to address concerns, in line with both the German law and EU regulations. Aldi conducted on-site investigations with union involvement and participated in negotiations with a focus on wage irregularities. As a result, in August 2025, the employing banana company made payments to affected workers. Negotiations are continuing on other issues such as occupational health and safety
While modest in scope and still ongoing, this case already serves as a powerful example of how retailers and their suppliers can be held to account by the new wave of European human rights and environmental legislation.
It was also not lost on us that, soon after the complaint was made against the German retailers, the Costa Rican government set up the country’s first ever Banana Forum, essentially a social dialogue, which is no small thing in Costa Rica.
SITRAP general secretary Didier Leiton Valverde, with Margaret McKee and James Anthony, in his union’s headquarters in Siguerres, Costa Rica
In a separate case in 2025, which was brought by Sitrap in Costa Rica, three unionised Costa Rican pineapple workers were awarded nearly 160 million Costa Rican colon (around £246,000) for unfair dismissal. The compensation covered over a decade of lost earnings and bonuses since the workers’ dismissal in July 2011, plus moral damage, and the additional payment of legal costs which had been arranged by the union.
The judge ruled that the dismissal of the workers was aimed at restricting their right to unionise This development provides a clear example of how the law can and should defend workers – as well as the role that can be played by empowered local unions.
Dealing with procurement
Awarding contracts to suppliers who can produce the cheapest fruit means British public procurement is driving harmful production practices: when suppliers compete on price, rather than quality of production, labour and environmental costs are treated as “externalities”. Savings are made by pushing down salaries and pushing up working hours, and shifting to a reliance on a temporary, more precarious workforce that cannot exercise their fundamental rights at work by forming or joining a free, independent, democratic union.
Also, Costa Rica is widely considered to be the highest user of pesticides per hectare of banana crop in the world. For decades, workers have reported moderate to severe health impacts related to pesticide exposure, including sterility, while tropical plantation agriculture has been linked to the contamination of local nature reserves and the Caribbean Sea.
The UK, in line with its European neighbours, must ensure that purchasing practices offer protection to both workers and the environment in our supply chains.
And there is another issue. Costa Rica has always been seen as a stable democracy in an unstable neighbourhood, but lately it’s become a strategic node in the regional drug economy. Young workers with no prospects of a decent job are being lured into the narcotics gangs. This risks destabilising not only Costa Rica but also the UK, where cocaine trafficked through Costa Rica increasingly ends up.
UNISON’s Margaret McKee speaking at UNISON-funded health and safety training with SITRAP and ANEP union members
The Westminster government says it wants to use trade to promote security and stability, mutual long-term economic growth and labour rights. It is currently assessing how well the UK is implementing the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, as part of a major review of responsible business conduct.
But UNISON argues that without the UK’s own mandatory human and environmental rights legislation, its public procurement system is undermining that ambition. That is why the union is a member of the Corporate Justice Coalition (CJC), which is demanding that the UK government introduce a Business, Human Rights and Environment Act – a due diligence law that will hold business, finance and the public sector to account for failing to prevent human rights abuses and environmental damage in their supply chains.
For their part, many retailers and some of their suppliers say that such legislation would offer a level playing field, so that those who invest in systems to protect those rights do not face unfair competition from those who don’t. Public procurement must be included in this law to ensure British public and private sector buyers are acting in coordination and not undermining one another, and so the government’s buying power can be used to ensure workers and communities receive genuine remedy for harm caused.
The Department for Business and Trade has been conducting a review into the proposed legislation for several months. UNISON encourages its members and branches to lobby for it whenever they see an opportunity.
Our laws – and those of our European neighbours – can be part of the push to reverse the iniquities experienced by workers in Costa Rica and across tropical value chains. We must recognise that if we want to see change in the world, we first must change ourselves, and that begins with the laws that govern our behaviour as retail and public buyers with enormous purchasing power.
Banana Link and UNISON will be producing a case study and members briefing to help UNISON members who work in public procurement develop the policy tools to bring about change for workers.
A Parliamentary debate on the issue has been secured. And as soon as the date is announced, the union will inform branches so they can encourage their MPs to attend.
Article originally published in UNISON Magazine
Photos: UNISON
